SBC 23: The Castle and the Wall

The annual gathering of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) concluded last week, having dealt with much on their plate: the election of a president, reporting (and lack thereof) of sexual abuse, and the financial mismanagement of seminaries.

But without a doubt, the most attention was given to the disfellowshipping of a handful of churches that had women serving as pastors. One church was front and center: Saddleback Community Church, one of the largest and most influential SBC churches in recent history, pastored by arguably the most well-known SBC pastor in recent history until his recent retirement, Rick Warren.

On the theological spectrum, Rick is extremely conservative. He holds to the inspiration and authority of the Bible, including its inerrancy. He simply came to the conclusion that an informed, balanced, careful interpretation of the Bible does not preclude women from serving in pastoral roles. 

He's far from alone in the conservative, evangelical world.

The late Tim Keller was often called the “John Stott of America,” meaning he served as the American equivalent to the grand U.K. pastor and evangelical scholar. John Stott embraced women teaching and leading, and serving as pastors. Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, founded by such evangelical luminaries as Billy Graham and Harold John Ockenga, embraces women serving as pastors. My own voice may not mean much, but I, too, have made my hermeneutical convictions clear. You can read them in a recent blog I wrote titled “Women as Pastors.”

And let’s be clear—this is about a hermeneutical disagreement. To say that this is a question of whether one is going to accept biblical authority is beyond disingenuous. 

It is slanderous.

Going further, to say that to accept women as pastors is to begin the slippery slope toward the mess of the United Methodist Church, or that affirming women as pastors will lead to affirming homoerotic behavior, is beyond fearmongering. 

It is propaganda. 

If you want the marks of what constitutes propaganda, you can find them here. If you have been following the rhetoric that led to the vote against Saddleback, you may find them eerily familiar.

And the complete lack of civility surrounding it all has been so un-Christlike, calling Rick Warren everything from a false teacher to a non-Christian. He is most certainly neither.  

There can certainly be reasoned and principled differences of opinion, sometimes even necessarily (sadly) leading to separation. But what is plaguing the Christian community is lovelessness and pride, misplaced missional energy and fear, a war mentality and open hostility. 

It’s as if we don’t know how to agree to disagree agreeably. 

But even more, it is as if we do not realize what we are doing to ourselves, much less the cause of Christ. Perhaps it’s because, as Frederick Buechner notes, anger is the more fun. “To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back—in many ways it is a feast fit for a king.”  

Yet Buechner is wise in carrying the meal through to its final course. “The chief drawback,” he continues, “is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.”

One of the most contentious denominational gatherings in American ecclesial history took place in San Antonio, Texas, but many present felt it had more in common with the Battle of Gettysburg than the standoff at the Alamo. I was one of them. It was the 1988 meeting of Southern Baptists that drew nearly 33,000 “messengers” as biblical inerrancy dominated discussions and deliberations.

W.A. Criswell, the revered pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, stepped to the podium and delivered what came to be known as the “skunk sermon” on the “curse” of liberalism. “A skunk by any other name still stinks,” he warned. He was followed by the man who would soon be his successor at First Dallas, Joel Gregory, who delivered a message titled “The Castle and the Wall” in a desperate attempt to keep the denomination from fracturing.

Gregory told of a nobleman who had a castle that was continually being ravaged by scavengers. So, he ordered a wall to be built around the castle to protect it. The workers asked the lord where the stones for the wall should be gained, and the king declared: “What does that matter? Just build the wall!” Months later, the king visited his castle and found a large and imposing wall around the site of his castle. Once through the gate, however, he found his castle gone. 

The workmen had gutted the castle for the stones needed to build the wall.

Gregory’s point was to avoid defending the castle in such a way that the castle itself is destroyed. Yes, the acrimony and animus surrounding the theological debate might produce a “winner,” and a wall might be built, but at the expense of the castle. Gregory and others like him were not opposed to a wall, but not at the expense of the castle itself. Sadly, this is what many believe has happened to the Southern Baptist Convention, and many other churches, organizations and denominations like it, through a combination of fear, pride and misplaced missional energy. 

At the time, historian Bill Leonard predicted that the acrimony of the Southern Baptist Convention would not dissipate once a side “won.” It would simply turn its energies on another enemy, as the spirit of division knows no end. 

He was prescient.

I mentioned there were 33,000 delegates present in 1988. There were only 12,000 or so present in 2023, with membership and baptisms in continued decline. And while inerrancy no longer dominates discussions, now being settled doctrine, differences of biblical interpretation among those who embrace inerrancy does.

Even to the point of being disfellowshipped. 

So, to the third or so from 1988 who remain and have inherited what’s left of the SBC, enjoy your “wall.” 

But the castle is long gone.

James Emery White

Sources

Bob Smietana, “Vexed By Quailing Attendance, Sex Abuse and Internal Feuds, SBC Takes On Women Pastors,” Religion News Service, June 12, 2023, read online.

Kate Shellnutt, “In Another Win for Abuse Reform, SBC Elects Bart Barber as President,” Christianity Today, June 14, 2022, read online.

Bob Smietana, “SBC Messengers Reelect Texas Pastor Bart Barber to a Second Term as President,” Religion News Service, June 13, 2023, read online.

Bob Smietana, “Southern Baptists End First Day of Annual Meeting with Key Questions Hanging,” Religion News Service, June 13, 2023, read online.

Kate Shellnutt, “Southern Baptists Committed to Abuse Reform. What Happened?” Christianity Today, June 14, 2023, read online.

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (New York: Harper and Row, 1973).

About the Author

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.

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The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.

James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on X, Facebook and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.